IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v17y2024i7p280-d1428507.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Would Managers Sacrifice Conservative Financial Reporting to Meet/Beat Market Earnings Expectations?

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony C. Ng

    (Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia)

  • Hua Christine Xin

    (Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA)

  • Bikki Jaggi

    (Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, USA)

Abstract

Prior studies show that engaging in conservative financial reporting (CON) positively affects earnings quality. However, managers also manage earnings to meet/beat market earnings expectations (MBME). This study asks three questions regarding the earnings that MBME. First, it investigates whether managers are willing to sacrifice CON when adopting strategies to MBME. Second, it tests whether managers prefer to use other earnings management (EM) strategies to MBME instead of sacrificing CON. Third, it tests whether information asymmetry between managers and shareholders affects managers’ decisions to sacrifice CON. Results show that managers are more likely to sacrifice CON to MBME but are less likely to do so if they can manage earnings using accrual-based or real EM. Also, managers are more likely to do so when information asymmetry with shareholders is higher. These findings contribute to the literature by examining the circumstances in which managers would sacrifice CON to MBME.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony C. Ng & Hua Christine Xin & Bikki Jaggi, 2024. "Would Managers Sacrifice Conservative Financial Reporting to Meet/Beat Market Earnings Expectations?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-33, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:7:p:280-:d:1428507
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/7/280/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/7/280/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeong†Bon Kim & Liandong Zhang, 2016. "Accounting Conservatism and Stock Price Crash Risk: Firm†level Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 412-441, March.
    2. Francis, Jennifer & LaFond, Ryan & Olsson, Per & Schipper, Katherine, 2005. "The market pricing of accruals quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 295-327, June.
    3. repec:eme:jalpps:j.acclit.2015.02.001 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Adut, Davit & Duru, Augustine & Galpin, Wendy Liu, 2011. "The role of corporate governance in meeting or beating analysts' forecast," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 188-198, March.
    5. Warfield, Terry D. & Wild, John J. & Wild, Kenneth L., 1995. "Managerial ownership, accounting choices, and informativeness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 61-91, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:1-25 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ping‐Sheng Koh & Stacie Kelley Laplante & Yen H. Tong, 2007. "Accountability and value enhancement roles of corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(2), pages 305-333, June.
    3. Yongtao Hong & Fariz Huseynov & Wei Zhang, 2014. "Earnings Management and Analyst Following: A Simultaneous Equations Analysis," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(2), pages 355-390, June.
    4. Hu, Gang & Liu, Yiye & Wang, Jacqueline Wenjie & Zhou, Gaoguang & Zhu, Xindong, 2022. "Insider ownership and stock price crash risk around the globe," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Paul Anglin & Robert Edelstein & Yanmin Gao & Desmond Tsang, 2013. "What is the Relationship Between REIT Governance and Earnings Management?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 538-563, October.
    6. Chen, Chen & Hanlon, Dean & Khedmati, Mehdi & Wake, James, 2023. "Annual report readability and equity mispricing," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3).
    7. Yu, Fang (Frank), 2008. "Analyst coverage and earnings management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 245-271, May.
    8. Cormier, Denis & Houle, Sylvain & Ledoux, Marie-Josée, 2013. "The incidence of earnings management on information asymmetry in an uncertain environment: Some Canadian evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 26-38.
    9. Avishek Bhandari & Joanna Golden & Kenton Walker & Joseph H. Zhang, 2022. "The relationship between stock repurchase completion rates, firm reputation and financial reporting quality: a commitment‐trust theory perspective," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2687-2724, June.
    10. Christina M. Lewellen, 2023. "Tax haven incorporation and financial reporting transparency," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1811-1855, September.
    11. Chen, Changling & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Yao, Li, 2017. "Earnings smoothing: Does it exacerbate or constrain stock price crash risk?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 36-54.
    12. Bilal, & Chen, Songsheng & Komal, Bushra, 2018. "Audit committee financial expertise and earnings quality: A meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 253-270.
    13. Lai, Karen M.Y. & Khedmati, Mehdi & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Mount, Matthew P., 2023. "Making honest men of them: Institutional investors, financial reporting, and the appointment of female directors to all-male boards," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Linxiao Liu & Harrison Liu & Jennifer Yin, 2014. "Stock Option Schedules and Managerial Opportunism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5-6), pages 652-684, June.
    15. Sandeep Goel & Nimisha Kapoor, 2022. "Is earnings management related to board independence and gender diversity? Sector-wise evidence from India," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 363-373, December.
    16. Boone, Jeff P. & Khurana, Inder K. & Raman, K.K., 2009. "Litigation reform, accounting discretion, and the cost of equity," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 80-94.
    17. Sati P. Bandyopadhyay & Alan Guoming Huang & Kevin Jialin Sun & Tony S. Wirjanto, 2017. "The return premiums to accruals quality," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 83-115, January.
    18. Khalil Jebran & Shihua Chen & Ruibin Zhang, 2022. "Board social capital and stock price crash risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 499-540, February.
    19. Aloke (Al) Ghosh & Doocheol Moon, 2010. "Corporate Debt Financing and Earnings Quality," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5‐6), pages 538-559, June.
    20. Wijayana, Singgih & Gray, Sidney J., 2018. "Capital market consequences of cultural influences on earnings: The case of cross-listed firms in the U.S. stock market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 134-147.
    21. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Fung, Simon Yu Kit & Jaggi, Bikki, 2009. "Earnings quality: Some evidence on the role of auditor tenure and auditors' industry expertise," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 265-287, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:7:p:280-:d:1428507. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.